Video Shows Differences Between Mavericks and Mountain Lion Multiple Monitor Support

spacehog371 said:
One of the biggest complains people have had about the old version is this guys biggest complaint about the new version. People were complaining that they had to switch spaces on every screen when they just wanted to do it on one. The idea that you want all of your spaces to switch so that the giant background works correctly is ridiculous. It is working exactly how it should work.
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Why is this so hard to get? The wallpaper is just a proxy for what he's talking about. You can't lay out a bunch of apps spanning his 6-monitor setup in one space, then a completely different set of apps spanning the array on another space, and then switch between those two spaces. That context is lost entirely with this arrangement.
 
Can one application span multiple desktops?

They demonstrated that you can't have one window of an application span two monitors - that's OK for me, but what's critical is can you put individual windows from the same application on different monitors? For example, you're using XCode and you have some code on your laptop, and another code window on your external monitor? Or you have multiple browser windows on different monitors?

I'd guess that you could, since they can span multiple DESKTOPs already (not just multiple screens), but wanted to be sure. 'Cause if one App had to only reside on one monitor, that's not very useful.
 
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CptnJustc said:
Both those 'problems' seems like they'd be easily solved at the app level. Doubtless someone will produce a menubar applet that will keep your spaces synchronized across monitors.
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Solved at the app level? Apps generally don't know or care where they are on the screen, and don't understand where they are in relation to other app windows.
 
Can't merge 6 monitors into a single screen any more?!?? Poor bastard. LOL!

Granted, I only use dual monitors but 10.9 is what it should have been all along.
 
FirePhantom said:
^

Also, I don't think he's in any position to complain considering he doesn't even have his six monitors calibrated together.
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As funny as your comment is, I'm thinking it has more to do with the camera seeing each one at a slightly different angle. This is a perfectly normal photography issue, not a monitor issue.
 
As someone who uses multiple monitors like a normal person, Mavericks does exactly what I need. This guy in the video isn't using "multiple monitors", he just has 6 displays basically set up as one monitor, so of course the new features for multi-monitor support is going to screw up his setup. At least there is a way to change it back for people like him, but he really is a sort of exception.
 
WestonHarvey1 said:
Why is this so hard to get? The wallpaper is just a proxy for what he's talking about. You can't lay out a bunch of apps spanning his 6-monitor setup in one space, then a completely different set of apps spanning the array on another space, and then switch between those two spaces. That context is lost entirely with this arrangement.
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True, that is a nice feature I use currently

I wonder if clicking the app icon will switch all associated screens back to the right space with the app running?
 
I'm not concerned about the wallpaper bit, but not spreading apps across two screens is a bit of a challenge for some workflows. I would be curious to see how apps with floating toolbars, etc... reacted. If I can at least still throw my tools, pallets, etc.. on a separate screen then I'm not quite as concerned.
 
jdiamond said:
They demonstrated that you can't have one window of an application span two monitors - that's OK for me, but what's critical is can you put individual windows from the same application on different monitors? For example, you're using XCode and you have some code on your laptop, and another code window on your external monitor? Or you have multiple browser windows on different monitors?
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You will have to physically relocate the additional windows using Mission Control. Alternatively you can set the menu bar to follow you around, and hit "New Window" on the target screen.
 
Hes picking up on flaws using this feature with 6 displays... how many people use 6 displays really?

Im looking forward to this, I can have a movie fullscreened on my TV while browsing on my mac at the same time.
 
Single windows spanning monitors is a huge pet peeve of mine. It makes my skin crawl.

Apparently someone at Apple agrees with me now.
 
Just change the setting

It is a setting in System Prefs that you can click on or off. If you like the old way, just choose that setting.
 
If you are working hard on something fancy wallpapers (especially ones that make up a bigger fancy image) are to be avoided anyway, because they are a distraction.
 
Does this guy not realize that Mavericks is still in beta? Even still, he's really stressing over an issue that isn't even an issue.
 
?

You would think Apple could fix and have some settings to optimize your usages of multi display.

It would be cool if you could stretch across, and if that application is utilizing two monitors, you could swipe desktops on just those two monitors. If it was stretched on 3, then use the 3 when you swipe across... ect.

Seems like it should be feasible.
 
I use multiple displays, three 30" 2560x1600 displays. So I can feel his pain but I do think his reliance on having synced up wallpapers between the displays is a bit over the top. About being able to span apps between displays however, I get that entirely and that is a legitimate concern.

As always if Apple doesn't fix this before release 3rd party developers will just like how they provided secondary display output to iBooks back in the day and tabs to the finder and SMB network backup support to Time Machine.

So I'm not worried.
 
jravin said:
It is a setting in System Prefs that you can click on or off. If you like the old way, just choose that setting.
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the "old" way should still not block all screens when an app is full screen. kinda sad to see they didn't address that, or have a sub setting to control that.
 
WestonHarvey1 said:
Solved at the app level? Apps generally don't know or care where they are on the screen, and don't understand where they are in relation to other app windows.
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By which I mean that it seems like an app could be easily written to address those two issues for those who think it needs to be addressed, rather than having Apple redesign their multiple monitor support at the OS level yet again.

The only thing that might prove difficult to address would be the splitting windows across monitors bit, which I think is a great tradeoff.
 
dukebound85 said:
2) How is splitting an app window across monitors helpful? As long as the app itself isn't contained to one screen, I am happy (ie two word docs on different screens)
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As long as it's still possible to temporarily move a window "out of the way" by shoving it partly off the screen. I don't care if the other end of the window doesn't stick out into another monitor. But sometimes it's useful to be able to adjust two windows so you can see the relevant parts of both, for whatever you are doing.
 
WestonHarvey1 said:
They can't fix that without rethinking their new approach to fullscreen apps on multiple monitors. Think about it awhile and you'll understand.

Apple has received a lot of criticism on their multiple monitor support, but it's actually a very complex problem.
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I've never found a reason to stretch the same app across different screens--it seems like a good idea sometimes (say you have a very wide spreadsheet), but it just doesn't work out very well in practice.

However, I don't see why Apple couldn't "fix" this if they wanted to. While I don't actually use it, I hope it doesn't stop me from dragging (part of) an application off-screen even in single-monitor usage, as that is something I do on occasion to save space when I only care about part of an app.

I assume the issue you're mentioning is this: what if you drag part of a regular application window onto a monitor that's currently displaying a full screen app? I don't think this problem is that difficult to solve: full screen should obviously take priority (as it currently does on any single monitor), so just hide the part of any application dragged onto that screen "beneath" it until the full screen app is closed or restored to a normal state. (EDIT: But the part on the other monitor should still behave normally, just as you'd expect.)
 
WestonHarvey1 said:
It's not the wallpaper. It is not being able to switch all monitors at the same time. You can't cover an array of monitors with a single space, and switch between spaces like you can now.
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The way it works NOW your Space includes both monitors. So if you have apps paired up for workflow the move to the next set of apps TOGETHER. And you can have this 3-4 Spaces deep. Now you have to move each screen independently.

Not necessarily bad, just different.
 
Small White Car said:
Single windows spanning monitors is a huge pet peeve of mine. It makes my skin crawl.

Apparently someone at Apple agrees with me now.
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Yes it looks horrible, but it can be extremely productive. I've spanned 4 monitors with a single large spreadsheet and found it very useful. In some cases it is a mess others I find it useful. Windows 7 actually has a pretty decent tradeoff setup for this, where windows will snap to monitor edges but can still be dragged to span multiple screens.
 
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